Arnau Sala Descals (born 20 November 1971) is a Spanish retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender, and a manager. He is currently the assistant manager of

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, it plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 Segunda División play-offs. Girona holds its home matches at ...

Club career

Born in

Sant Fruitós de Bages Sant Fruitós de Bages () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Bages in Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by i ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, Sala made his senior debuts with

CE Manresa Centre d'Esports Manresa is a Spanish football team based in Manresa, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1916, it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 5, holding home games at ''Nou Estadi Municipal del Congost'', with a c ...

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

. After appearing with

Real Zaragoza B Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

and

AEC Manlleu Agrupació Esportiva i Cultural Manlleu is a football team based in Manlleu, Spain. Founded in 1933, it plays in the Tercera División – Group 5. Its stadium is '' Municipal de Manlleu'' with a capacity of 3000 seats. Season to season ---- ...

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

, he joined

UE Figueres Unió Esportiva Figueres is a Spanish football team based in Figueres, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1919 and refounded in 2007 it plays in the Primera Catalana league, holding home matches at ''Estadi Municipal de Vilateni ...

in the same level in the 1994 summer. In June 1999 Sala joined

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), (from the 2020–21 season onwards competing under the umbrella of Unión Futbolística Cordobesa, S.A.D.) is a Spanish football club based in Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1951 as ...

. He played his first match as a professional on 28 August, aged 28, starting in a 0–1 away loss against Recreativo de Huelva. Sala scored his first professional goal on 2 October, netting his side's first of a 2–1 home win against CA Osasuna. After appearing in 36 matches and scoring four goals during his first campaign, he was sparingly used in his second, and subsequently returned to Figueres in the 2001 summer. In 2002 Sala joined

, achieving promotion from the fourth level at first attempt. He retired in 2006, aged 35, with

CF Peralada Club de Futbol Peralada is a Spanish football team based in Peralada, in Province of Girona of the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1915, it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 5, holding home matches at ''Municipal de Peralada ...

in the same division.

Manager career

On 3 June 2010, after being Raül Agné's assistant at Girona and Recreativo de Huelva, Sala was appointed Figueres manager. He achieved two consecutive promotions with the club, taking them back to the fourth level in the 2012–13 season. In February 2013 Sala announced he would leave Figueres at the end of the season, and was appointed at the helm of

Girona FC B Girona Futbol Club "B" is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Girona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. The reserve team of Girona FC was founded in 2011, and plays in Tercera División RFEF, Tercera Divisió ...

on 4 July. On 29 December he was appointed UE Olot manager, replacing fired Edu Vílchez. On 10 May 2014, after narrowly avoiding relegation, Sala renewed with Olot. He was dismissed that November, with the team again in the drop zone. Sala returned to Peralada as manager in 2015, and in his second season won promotion from the fourth tier with a playoff victory over Club Rápido de Bouzas. In December 2017, he left to be Agné's assistant again, this time with Nei Mongol Zhongyou F.C. in

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

. The pair were dismissed the following August, with the team second from bottom. On 23 October 2019, Sala and Raül Agné returned to

.Raúl Agné llega a un acuerdo para ser el entrenador del Córdoba CF
diariocordoba.com, 23 October 2019

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sala, Arnau 1971 births Living people People from Bages Footballers from the Province of Barcelona Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Deportivo Aragón players AEC Manlleu footballers UE Figueres footballers Córdoba CF players Girona FC players Spanish football managers UE Figueres managers UE Olot managers CE Manresa players Spanish expatriates in China